“There’s no marine organism that doesn’t produce mucus, from the lowly snail to the slimy fish.” But in healthy waters, mucus doesn’t amass to epic proportions. “Mucus is everywhere,” says Michael Stachowitsch, a marine ecologist at the University of Vienna. Slime in the sea is not inherently unusual. Workers in Turkey vacuuming up sea snot (Ali Atmaca / Anadolu Agency via Getty) As unsightly as sea snot might be, its most devastating effects happen far away from human eyes, deep below the surface. And even worse, the floating mucus is a sign of much larger disruptions in the sea. But scientists say that much more is probably lurking under the water. Turkey is now trying to vacuum up its embarrassment of sea snot, dispatching workers with hoses to collect mucus by the tons for incineration. The slime is, in short, a national crisis. It’s smothering shellfish, clogging nets, and destroying the fishing industry. For months, this foul mucus has blanketed the Sea of Marmara, which connects the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea in the Mediterranean. The sea snot there has surfaced and turned monstrous, gelling into a thick layer of yellowing slime atop the water. Then there is whatever is happening off the coast of Turkey-a downright “mucilage calamity,” in the words of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan. Then there are the tiny flakes of “marine snow,” which begin as drops of mucus and accumulate organic debris as they drift slowly, slowly down to the bottom of the sea.
But there are also floating “clouds,” white and ethereal, so delicate that they break apart in your fingers. There are the “stringers,” which most resemble the sticky goo that might actually come out of your nose. Divers who have seen the phenomenon firsthand describe many types of underwater sea snot.
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